Family retail chain set to close store

Mohmedamin Laher first joined Imsons in 1986 after working for Foxsons and the Yorkshire Woollen District Bus Company.

He helped run its shops in Cleckheaton and Heckmondwike before taking over one of the retailer’s two units in Dewbury’s Queensway Arcade in the late 1990s.

His brother Soeab Laher said: “Mohmedamin has been working since 1966 and he’s never stopped.

“The top unit facing onto Northgate is going to be closed when he retires. It will be around Easter time.”

Imsons is holding a closing down sale in the unit to be shut, but the neighbouring shop run by Soeab will stay open along with the household goods branch in the nearby Kingsway Arcade.

Soeab, who has had his shop for 23 years, said: “I’ve had a lot of regulars coming in saying ‘You’re not going are you?

“We’re going to keep the most popular lines from the Queensway shops in here and see how things go from there.”

He said trade in the town centre had dropped in recent years and his brother’s retirement had prompted them to look at the future of the business.

“It’s quieter, definitely,” he said. “It’s not like it used to be at the moment.”